¹ Southeast Asian nations, for instance, tend to view active American participation in regionalism as a means to check China's rise. See, Long, S. R. Joey, ‘The United States, Southeast Asia, and Asia-Pacific Security’, Asia Policy, 12 (July 2011), esp. p. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a discussion of the Australian debate about institutional binding aimed at China, see Thayer, Carlyle A., ‘China's Rise and the Passing of U.S. Primacy: Australia Debates Its Future’, Asia Policy, 12 (July 2011), p. 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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³ For recent reviews of regionalism in East Asia, see the Special Issue of the Japanese Journal of Political Science, with an introduction piece by He, Baogang and Inoguchi, Takashi, ‘Introduction to Ideas of Asian Regionalism’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 2:2 (2011), pp. 165–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pempel, T. J., ‘Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism: The Economic-Security Nexus and East Asian Regionalism’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 10 (2010), pp. 209–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Calder, Kent and Ye, Min, The Making of Northeast Asia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010)Google Scholar, Green, Michael J. and Gill, Bates (eds), Asia's New Multilateralism: Cooperation, Competition, and the Search for Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Frost, Ellen L., Asia's New Regionalism (Boulder, CO: Lynne-Rienner, 2008)Google Scholar.

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⁶ Acharya, Amitav and Goh, Evelyn, ‘Introduction: Reassessing Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific’, in Acharya, Amitav and Goh, Evelyn (eds), Reassessing Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific: Competition, Congruence, and Transformation (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007), p. 1Google Scholar.

⁷ Existing studies have shown how overlapping institutions and regime complexity have influenced the politics of international cooperation, mostly in the European context. See, for example, Alter, Karen J. and Meunier, Sophie, ‘The Politics of International Regime Complexity’, Perspectives on Politics, 7:1 (March 2009), pp. 13–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hofmann, Stephanie C., ‘Why Institutional Overlap Matters: CSDP in the European Security Architecture’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 49:1 (2010), pp. 101–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gehring, Thomas and Oberthür, Sebastian, ‘The Causal Mechanisms of Interaction between International Institutions’, European Journal of International Relations, 15:1 (2009), pp. 125–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹³ On the emergence of the ASEAN Plus Three, see Stubbs, Richard, ‘ASEAN Plus Three: Emerging East Asian Regionalism?’, Asian Survey, 42:3 (2002), pp. 440–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For regional concerns about the US action in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, see Ravenhill, John, ‘A Three Bloc World? The New East Asian Regionalism’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 2 (2002), p. 171CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Another important trend in economic regionalism that has emerged in East Asia – one that is beyond the scope of this article – is the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs). For discussions of the political and economic significance of FTAs in the East Asian region, see, for example, Aggarwal, Vinod K. and Lee, Seungjoo (eds), Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific: The Role of Ideas, Interests, and Domestic Institutions (New York: Springer, 2010)Google Scholar; Desker, Barry, ‘In Defense of FTAs: From Purity to Pragmatism in East Asia’, The Pacific Review, 17:1 (2004), pp. 3–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cai, Kevin G., ‘The ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement and East Asian Regional Grouping’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 25:3 (2003), pp. 387–404CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹⁵ Pempel, ‘Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism’, p. 212.

¹⁶ Another example of security regionalism is the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which was created after the end of the Cold War to reduce uncertainty about regional interactions among Great Powers. See Kawasaki, ‘Neither skepticism nor romanticism’, pp. 231–33. Without a coherent set of security agendas, however, the 27-member ARF has remained largely a limited consultative mechanism.

¹⁷ Milner, Helen V., ‘Industries, Governments, and the Creation of Regional Trade Blocs’, in Mansfield, Edward and Milner, Helen V. (eds), The Political Economy of Regionalism (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 77–106Google Scholar; Frieden, Jeffry, ‘Invested Interests: the Politics of National Economic-Policies in a World of Global Finance’, International Organization, 45:4 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 425–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁰ Pempel, ‘Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism’.

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²² Edward Mansfield and Etel Solingen show that regionalism may be politicised domestically in a number of ways. Political leaders, for instance, may choose particular forms of regionalism to overcome resistance from entrenched interest groups. In times of economic downturn, entering a preferential trade agreement (PTA) can help the government by ‘committing the leader to an open trade regime with member-states, signaling to voters he or she will not allow trade policy to be shaped by special interests – and that he or she is not responsible for poor economic performance’. Mansfield, Edward D. and Solingen, Etel, ‘Regionalism’, Annual Review of Political Science, 13 (2010), p. 150CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁶ As Helen Nesadurai argues in her analysis of ‘ambiguous trends’ among ASEAN governments on their commitment to and implementation of trade liberalisation, ‘the degree of support political elites enjoy and their political legitimacy depend on how they meet the needs of a variety of domestic groups, including social and ethnic groups, business actors, and citizens more broadly’. In other words, decision-makers must make external policy decisions ‘within distinct domestic social and political contexts’. See Nesadurai, Helen, Globalisation, Domestic Politics, and Regionalism: The ASEAN Free Trade Area (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 19Google Scholar.

²⁷ The Keidanren was reportedly concerned about deteriorating relations with China during the Abe government. See ‘Nippon Keidanren urges Abe govt to mend ties with China, S. Korea’, mainichi Daily News (27 September 2006).

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³⁰ Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative, available at: {http://nabh.pa.go.kr}. Among the four special advisory committees, the first two concern foreign and national security affairs and inter-Korean cooperation, while the third and fourth committees respectively deal with economic cooperation and societal and cultural cooperation.

³¹ The Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko, for instance, stated in September 2011 that there is no need for Japan to propose a larger regional vision such as an East Asia Community. Hangyoreh (7 September 2011).

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⁴⁰ He and Inoguchi, ‘Introduction to Ideas of Asian Regionalism’, p. 175.

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 170.

⁴² Meyer, Peggy Falkenheim, ‘Sino-Japanese Relations: The Economic Security Nexus’, in Akah, Tsuneo (ed.), Politics and Economics in Northeast Asia: Nationalism and Regionalism in Contention (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), pp. 141–2Google Scholar.

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⁷⁵ Choo, ‘South Korea and East Asian Regionalism’, pp. 42–5.

⁷⁶ Moon and Rhyu, ‘Rethinking Alliance and the Economy’, pp. 461–2.

⁷⁷ Global Korea: The National Security Strategy of the Republic of Korea, Seoul; Cheong Wa Dae, cited in Moon and Rhyu, p. 460.

⁷⁸ Moon and Rhyu, p. 458.

⁷⁹ Ibid., p. 461.

⁸⁰ This is a term (and sentiment) that has shown staying power, widely seen and heard in politicians’ comments, media reports, and everyday conversations. Most recently, an article making headlines in the Joongang Ilbo discussed the damaging of gukgyuk from a pending misdemeanor charge against a South Korean government official who reportedly harassed a female intern during his visit to Washington DC earlier this year. See ‘“I Have No Prior Contact with Yoon Chang-jung, but I volunteered to defend him because…”’ Joongang Ilbo (15 July 2013).

⁸¹ Hwan, Kim Sung, Cheongwadae Jeongchaek Sosik (Blue House Policy Briefing), 47 (29 January 2010)Google Scholar.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ Hundt and Kim, ‘Competing Notions of Regionalism in South Korean Politics’, p. 260.

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⁸⁸ Sneider, ‘The New Asianism’, p. 109.

⁸⁹ Ibid., p. 124.

⁹⁰ Ibid., p. 113.

⁹¹ ‘No clear vision for Japan-proposed East Asian Community’, People's Daily (25 October 2009).

⁹² Ko Hirano, ‘China wary of Hatoyama's “East Asian community”’, Japan Times (3 October 2009).

⁹³ Lim Wonhyuk, ‘Regional Multilateralism in Asia and the Korean Question’, in Green and Gill (eds), Asia's New Multilateralism, pp. 92–3.

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⁹⁶ Hundt and Kim, ‘Competing Notions of Regionalism in South Korean Politics’. p. 258.

⁹⁷ Pastreich, ‘The Balancer’.

⁹⁸ Munhwa Ilbo (15 April 2005).

⁹⁹ Donga Ilbo (15 April 2005).

¹⁰⁰ Akaha, Tsuneo, ‘Japan's Multilevel Approach toward the Korean Peninsula After the Cold War’, in Armstrong, Charles K., Rozman, Gilbert, Kim, Samuel S., and Kotkin, Stephen (eds), Korea at the Center: Dynamics of Regionalism in Northeast Asia (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 2006), p. 186Google Scholar.

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¹⁰³ Rozman, Northeast Asia's Stunted Regionalism, p. 141.

¹⁰⁴ Gavan McCormack, ‘Okinawa and the “beautiful country”’, Asia Times (7 June 2007).

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¹⁰⁷ Remarks by H. E. Mr. Taro Aso, minister for Foreign Affairs at the 60th Meeting of the Board of Counsellors at Nippon Keidanren (25 December 2006), available at: {http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/fm/aso/speech0612.html}.

¹⁰⁸ Yul Sohn, ‘Japan's New Regionalism: China Shock, Values, and the East Asian Community’, Asian Survey, 50:3 (May/June 2010), pp. 497–519; Bates Gill and Michael J. Green, ‘Unbundling Asia's New Multilateralism’, in Green and Gill (eds), Asia's New Multilateralism (2009), pp. 1–29.

¹⁰⁹ David Fouse, ‘Japan's “values-oriented diplomacy”’, New York Times (21 March 2007).

¹¹⁰ Rozman, Northeast Asia's Stunted Regionalism, p. 150.

¹¹¹ Sohn, ‘Japan's New Regionalism’.

¹¹² The case studies analysed in this article offer plausibility probes of our theoretical framework. Possible extensions of this research include content analysis of leaders’ speeches and official policy statements in order to demonstrate more systematically the types of variation in regionalism initiatives in East Asia.

¹¹³ Pempel, ‘Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism’, p. 230.

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¹²⁰ Lacking its own strategy toward North Korea, China also issued a ‘three-step’ proposal for resuming the Six Party talks, which would begin with inter-Korean talks and then US-North Korean negotiations, followed by the Six-Party talks. Sunny Lee, ‘China proposes Seoul lead nuclear talks’, Asia Times (15 April 2011).

¹²¹ We thank an anonymous reviewer for alerting us to this larger point. Similarly, William Tow and Brandon Taylor argue that the lack of consensus among regional actors on what the regional security architecture actually means contributes to the difficulty of establishing an effective regional security mechanism. See Tow, William T. and Taylor, Brendan, ‘What is Asian security architecture?’, Review of International Studies, 36 (2010), p. 116CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹²⁵ ‘Abe promotes expanding regional ties’, Yomiuri Shimbun (30 December 2012).